Castor Design Recycles Old Bank Marble Into New Deadstock Line

Castor Designs have been a fixture on TreeHugger since 2005 with their combination of good design and a great sense of humour. In fact, that's how they describe themselves:

Castor are interested in the middle ground between high design and ribald yokelism. Materials and reuse of materials is also an important part of Castor’s aesthetic. Burnt out bulbs to make lighting, a rusty shipping container to make a sauna – this re-contextualization of materials is a primary design consideration for Castor.

Their latest is their Deadstock Collection, which includes lamps made from old shades found in a defunct lighting factory, " discovered in dust-covered boxes that had not been touched for 30 years". It also includes table tops and lamp bases cut from Carrera marble removed from First Canadian Place, the tower of the Bank of Montreal (BMO).

This stone has a great backstory: First Canadian Place is Canada's largest office building, designed by Edward Durell Stone and built by the Reichmann Family (who also built Battery Park in New York and much of the Docklands in London before going broke) 37 years ago. It couldn't stand up to the Canadian freeze-thaw cycle and a few pieces even fell off. Last year the whole building was reclad in shiny new laminated glass and the marble has found its way into all kinds of odd places, including Castor's BMO tables, named after the bank.

Carefully selected pieces of this 37 year old marble have been cut, cleaned and polished to form a limited number of Deadstock BMO marble tables. The solid brass legs and cast aluminum brackets add a striking contrast. 'from an ecological point of view we are saving raw materials and making the old parts desirable again”, explains partner Kei Ng.